"Pictures of you, pictures of me..."

"I love that I'm singing just to avoid the awful feeling I get from looking at these."

Oh wait. Those aren't the lyrics.

Hey! So. I got them. And Sammi's. Well...two of Sammi's. The rest were either too messed up to be anything discernible or the files were corrupted somehow.

You don't know how sad this made me...I worked hard getting those pictures. :(

I know...

Anyways, acquiring these was such a joyous time! All the punching the monitor and desk (and Seth telling me to calm down) and the almost crying...

And you know...Oesch couldn't fix the computer because he couldn't figure out what was wrong. I knew exactly what it was. But that kind of talk gets you sent to the nurse. And the guidance counselor.

So I just flailed around for like...half the class. When I finally got it to cooperate enough for me to look at them...

You remember the first time I took pictures, right? They were fine when I took them and fine on the camera. But when I uploaded them they were horribly distorted. Not all of these are like that. They came out the way they were supposed to. But some are. In a really, really terrifying way.

I shared the new developments with Casey first. Here they are.

This is just us walking up to the shack. I was disguised just in case. It is incredibly hard to effectively maneuver up hills while wearing that thing...

I told you to go up the way I was going.

I couldn't see anyways. :l

Because you were wearing that ridiculous, asthma inducing mask.

Casey looking in. The inside shows evidence of a fire. So does the roof.

I can't believe I've never looked at this the entire time I've lived here.

I'm still amused that it took an Eldritch abomination to get us to go explore it.

 Burnt, decaying doorway. Please note the lack of anything significant in the window.

This is a bit of the roof. Right in the doorway.

I still don't know why you went in there after you saw that.

Somebody had to.

Oh. Window again. Annnnd there. In the left pane. Do you know who that is? I'll let you guess a bit first. Let's go on.

WE thought it was Him too. You know, before you try and guess that. Because you'll be wrong.

This was taken right after the figure in the window appeared and shuffled away. There is NOTHING wrong with this wall normally. Yes, this is one of the "new developments".

Pleasebepaintpleasebepaintpleasebepaint...

I'm pretty sure I almost passed out in class...that wall was blank...

This is a bit of collapsed roof above the same wall. Nothing is wrong with this picture. No distortions...or blood...

Speaking of roofs, this is above the creepy stalker window. More graffiti.

How did it get up there...?

They probably just stood and sprayed it on. It is incredibly claustrophobic in there...Ms. I-Wouldn't-Go-In.

Shush. :l

A view out the window Casey was looking in.

I can't believe I didn't see him from there...
SHHH YOU'LL GIVE IT AWAY.

We don't know what this is.

Madre said it was for a well.

I refuse to believe that.

Me too.

This is where I became hysterical. Silently hysterical though. My hand shot up to my mouth and I started (almost) hyperventilating. Seth and Sammi had to pat and hug me.

...

That wasn't there. I can prove it in the next picture. That wall is as blank as the other side of it.

It looks hand painted. It's not distorted like the rest of the picture either.

You see?! Oh. And quiz time! Did you get it right?

I love that he ran off as soon as we noticed.

Either we're oblivious or Fox is sneaky. Or both. And the only reason we noticed was because this happened: "Whelan! You're in the shot!" "No? I'm right behind you." "Then who..." "...holy shit. HEY YOU!"

This is the last of ours. Just another pic of the Wolf...yes that IS the fence I fell over.

Teeheehee...

And now...Sammi's. There's only two of these. But the three of us ALL froze when looking at them. Somehow she missed these two in her collection...

I swear they weren't there...

...I don't think that's Aiden's Slendy. Sammi. Please be careful outside.

Oh yeah. You don't have to worry about that. I'm not goin' out there...

Ohgod. Why didn't anybody warn me not to look at those alone...

Whelp. Thursday. Super eventful day. Other than seriously almost making me faint several times, it's still a harbinger of good things. Like delicious lunch. And me actually doing good on a math test. And a four day weekend. And it's NICE outside. I actually got to hop around on the trampoline without incident. But that's probably because Ace was out and Erin brought Tucker over too.

Really looking forward to Aiden's tomorrow. It's really weird feeling this way, but I just have this desire to be there. And feel safe. Because I know He isn't harmful there. And He won't let Crow and Fox get me.

Seth is still reasonably iffy about the fact that He's going to be around, but I assured him he'd be safe.

When I get back, I've got some serious studying to do on those two. And I need another look at that shack.

That's all for now, everyone. Stay safe, friends.

Edit: Skye. Absent. Four days.

Status

I thought it might be helpful to any others to give a full update on what exactly is going on with my crew.

Me: Nightmares, but less of them now - standard running panicked in a forest, evolved into actually seeing him in them. Paranoia. Have spotted him in a photograph of the woods down the street. Keeping an eye on all vantage points in the house. Have an Operator symbol taped to my room's window. "Disturbing coincidences" have slowed. I'm either fully attributing them to him and therefore am not specifically looking for them, or the number of strange incidents themselves has dropped. Confused about his intentions.

Seth: In more trouble than I initially thought. Has full on nightmares. Has a journal partially filled with strange doodles and the general messages. Also has a slight cough. May or may not be losing time. I suspect he is becoming Hallowed, though he was doing much better with Skyler around. But she's gone back home for the week. Will monitor as closely as possible.

Skyler: Don't know much and is hard to gauge, but is in less trouble than Seth. May be the least bothered, even less than me right now. She was patrolling windows for Seth, not out of her own fear.

Sammi: Possibly has the most snarky/angry attitude towards him. He now appears in her night terrors, but she fights. Woke up to her mom screaming about something this morning. Incident might be related. She's trying to track him through her photography. I'm fairly certain this means he's also stalking around outside her house.

Casey: Is also terrified. (I'm not gonna lie, I'm thoroughly frightened by all of this too.) But has taken my tips on trying to stay upbeat. Wanders the living rooms and kitchen by daylight cautiously. Avoids them as much as possible by night. Has stopped taking pictures for the time being. Also has nightmares.

Skye: Whether she wants to be included or not, I believe her case is relevant. Developed a cough that has progressively gotten worse. Was not at school today. Has become more irritable. Went from being annoyed by Seth and I and our discussions, then got blatantly furious about it. It could just be that she gets angry about things that she doesn't like and she might possibly have what Aiden had. But I'm considering her anyways.

I think that's everything. I still don't see him in the window behind me. I will definitely alert you when that happens. Because despite my best efforts, I'll probably be screaming about it.

I'm going to go try to offer input on other blogs.

Oh look more snow. Yay.

If I had any nightmares, I don't remember them. Aside from knowing that he's outside somewhere, I am otherwise okay.

I don't like there being a forest in the backyard. Too many vantage points in this house. But as far as I know, he hasn't come anywhere near my house. This is nice, but it presents some good questions. Like, is the symbol actually working? And why am I the one that seems to have the least problems? (More on this in another post.)

I just read up on Maduin (you funny, ballsy man) and several others. I didn't have much else to do in IM today. And it's midterms, so no homework. Not academically, anyways. Research on him is my survival homework.

I also got Casey's pictures. Here's the first:

Then the camera gets completely screwy:

And then nothing's wrong with this one:

Next...a status report.

Is it okay to panic now?

One
Friday and Saturday ended up being enjoyable days. And I decided not to ruin them. Today is okay though, I guess. I though, "Hm...I have nothing going on," except now I have the urge to cry.

Two
I finished The Tutorial yesterday. I had barely started it before, never even got to the Tulpa Effect theory. And now I'm absolutely terrified that I've passed this thing on to several classmates because of Casey.
Still, it's a guide. It's a beacon of hope. And I love it and M for existing.

Three
I haven't broken down yet because I'm trying to sass the crap out of Him. Actually, it's mostly just me being bitter and sarcastic about the fear, and not to Him directly. I keep telling myself, "Zeke is a badass. Zeke didn't let himself turn into a cowering mess. And Zeke is alive."
Second point of hope.
I've been looking to see where else Zeke and M have been in the other blogs. I've come across Sandra's crew and Celeste thus far. Aiden, is there a list of sorts?

Four
Yes...what we really want to talk about...
Most of the pictures are normal nature shots. Some of them were alarming and it looked like someone set my camera to thermal or something - except my camera doesn't have anything like that at all. There's also the standard fuzz and distortion and such.
Ace's picture came out unharmed. At least I got that out of my useless nature shots and screwed up pictures.

And then this one showed up amongst the distortions...

...it's the only one like that.
This is where I heard something snap. I don't know if...HE and the noise are related - I don't think they are - but...there He is...

I couldn't see him there before. Maybe I wasn't looking, or maybe he only showed up on camera.

I don't know if I'm more comfortable with Him currently being invisible to me or if I'd rather just see Him.

I've asked the crew (Seth, Sammi, Casey, Skyler) to keep their eyes open and take pictures as well. Apparently Casey already has something for me. She caught a bit ago and initially brushed it off as the camera spazzing out. I have yet to receive it, but I'll post it when I do.

Speaking of the crew...

Five
Nobody's heard from Skye in a few days. We don't know if she's at home sick or if she went to the hospital or...
God...I don't want to think of that...

And Ripley's owners have reported him missing. Which also worries me. But he's run off before. They found him relaxing in a lady's house the first time. Maybe that's where he is, I hope.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to stay in my head. I'm going to try the Operator symbol trick. I'll put it in my window. Hopefully I don't have any of the dreams...I have school tomorrow...and midterms...I'd like to sleep.

...I'm going to try to contact M.

"Branwen's Big Forest Adventure!"

Dad was being non compliant about going with me and I couldn't offer an explanation that sounded sane, so I just said, "Alright fine. I'll go by myself."

I was getting impatient about this trip anyways. But I was smart about it. I didn't actually "go in".

So it starts off with me getting Ace and snapping the leash on. I had to get him up and excited first. German Shepherds are known for napping around the house a lot. And the other half of him (something huge, Mastiff we think) just makes him more chill and easy going. I guess that's what makes him a gentle giant though.
So I found him lazing around dad's chair. I bent down, said, "Walk?" and his head snapped up. Ace loves walks!

I grabbed my camera and we went outside into the snowy wasteland.

It actually wasn't that bad. I only started freezing when we began to head home.

I noticed the fire smell again when we hit the driveway. It only existed in that area though. Ace and I headed up the street and our neighbor Roger was out shoveling his driveway. Ace loves Roger. Ace loves people. Especially kids. Gentle giant. Gentle protective giant too.
We stopped to chat a bit. Roger says he hasn't seen Ripley in a couple days. Come to think of it, neither have I. I shrug and say maybe he'll show up on the walk. We continue on our way to the closest patch of woods on the horseshoe.

I got as close as possible and got some pictures. I decided against actually going in since I had nobody with me and this patch of woods was difficult to get into in the first place. Running out would be a trick. And then to try it with a huge dog...
I heard a snap. I figured it was just a dead tree under the weight of the snow and ice, but I took some pictures in the direction anyways. Then a couple shots of Ace for cuteness. I picked up his leash and we headed in the other direction.

No sign of Ripley.

We get to the other patch. I can actually enter this one and exit easily due to there not being an almost vertical hill. It just slopes off the road into a patch of grass and then there's a forest. There's also some quad trails.
I only took a few steps in though. I took some pictures around and noticed Ace staring off into the distance at something. I decided to take some pictures in that direction as well. One is zoomed in, to make sure.

We headed home. All the while it was silent. Not in the same creepy way like on our last walk. Just the sounds of people were absent. The kind of silence I love, as rare as it is. You could hear the wind as it blew past you. Someone had wind chimes up. There were some birds as we got closer to the second patch of woods.
Then some dogs barked as we passed and that was a tad annoying.

Still no sign of Ripley. Maybe he got hit by a car again and was being confined to his house?

The fire smell was still in the driveway when we got back, but I think it's from the neighbors. No creeptacular source there.

Anyways, I've got me some pictures to go through now. If this is really happening, then I guess I've also got a game of Where's Waldo: Eldritch Abomination Edition to play too.

I'll get back to you on the pictures as soon as possible.